The subsurface drilling operations are extremely important in order to efficiently investigate the rock elements that form a terrain. For so, vertical sequences of rocks exposed on the surface, which are named outcrops, are described, or rock cores extracted from wells drilled for research, or mineral or oil exploration. These descriptions are performed by geologists, who generally take notes on paper, in the areas where the core or outcrop is, normally far from locations with technology infrastructure. Then, these notes are transferred to a digital format, usually through desktop computers in offices or laboratories with computer systems guided by a designer, and sets of geological image libraries to be selected by the user. This is the case of CAD systems (Computer Aided Design, which are graphic support systems for projects). The purpose of this transfer is only for faster graphical reporting and the preservation of the drawings and notes. Examples of such systems are WellCAD (developed by Advanced Logic Technology) and StrataBugs (developed by StrataData).
In addition to these, there are systems to elaborate designs on multi-touch screens, allowing the geologist to perform his own notes and drawings in digital media. These systems, which also fall into the CAD category, are, for example, Sketchbook (developed by AutoDesk) and ArtRage (developed by Ambient Design). Both are used to produce drawings and are not specific systems for Geosciences.
Therefore, one can evidence that, besides the use of drawing systems for vertical sequences of rocks, human processing is required, i.e., the information generated are drawings that can only be interpreted by people. The difference between the files generated by the abovementioned systems and handmade drawings is just the storage media: paper vs. digital. The limitation of the existing approaches is that the information generated cannot be interpreted and automatically extracted by computers, because in the current state of the art, computers cannot see or interpret drawings. Current approaches produce a large amount of data, with high capture cost and low use potential by the industry. It is still worth mentioning that the current systems do not systematize the vocabulary of geological feature descriptions to obtain correlated descriptions, even when performed by different geologists. The heterogeneity of the vocabulary of geological feature descriptions hinders the development of computational methods for computer processing and automatic interpretation of the generated data.
Thus, for an effective and an efficient descriptive data capture of vertical sequences of rocks, several technologies have been developed, and two patents may be cited. The American patent U.S. Pat. No. 8,385,604 B2 describes a combination of digital camera and desktop computer that uses a system to describe rock cores. In this system, the operator must enter through a keyboard and mouse all the information related to the sample, which is also photographed. From the two-dimensional image, a virtual three-dimensional model of the sample core is generated. Another patent, Australian WO2010148435 A1, presents a combination of digital camera and desktop computer, as above, but it includes a base for positioning the sample and sensors for its measurement.
As mentioned above, both patents have the disadvantages of only accelerating the process to obtain images and to describe cores, without a standardization of the generated data. In both cases, the captured data are images that require human processing, and allow free annotations. Similarly to the CAD examples, the only difference between the handmade drawings and those generated by these systems is the storage media. These solutions do not also standardize the vocabulary used in the description, even when made by only one geologist, which hinders the development of computational methods capable of interpreting the data generated subjectively, requiring human analysis, making the processing more susceptible to errors.
Based on the above, we can notice a gap in the description process of vertical sequences of rocks. In all current processes, there is no standardization of the vocabulary of geological features and of the data input forms in the digital environment, using the mouse and keyboard as interaction resources, making impossible to use automatic interpretation and correlation methods for the generated data.